Last year, the experts Lawn & Landscape interviewed about insects and pests almost uniformly said that a wet, warm winter made it unclear what problems LCOs would face over the spring and summer.

Some things never change – experts say there’s no way of knowing for sure what will be this year’s prominent problems. But those same experts instead point to a dry winter as the reason for this season’s unpredictability.

“I dropped my crystal ball this morning,” said Chris Williamson, a researcher with the PBI-Gordon team. It was a joke – he obviously doesn’t really have a crystal ball – but the point was that it’s difficult to say with any certainty how the weather affects pest pressures.

Williamson is also a former professor of 20 years, and he knows that a wet winter could either let pests fester or drown them. Meanwhile, a dry winter might mean that insects don’t get what they need to survive or it could mean that they thrive without snow or cold rain.

“All regions in the country are being impacted more than normal by turf pest pressures in great part due to the inconsistencies in weather patterns from season to season and year to year,” says Bayer’s Robert Golembiewski. “We are seeing the spread of diseases, insects and weeds into regions of the country that we have never seen before.”